Approval granted for water booster station in Dunbar Township
The Fayette County Zoning Hearing Board voted Wednesday to approve plans for a water booster station in Dunbar Township despite the location of a memorial on the site.
The zoning board unanimously granted a special exception for the public/private works facility for the North Fayette County Municipal Authority.
The booster station will replace another located near the site. The building, which will service 85 percent of the 15,000 customers of the authority, is being constructed on property owned by Dunbar Public Library, according to attorney Timothy Witt.
“There is a booster station on the other side of Dunbar Creek. This replaces that,” Witt said.
The booster station will be constructed on a 15-acre site.
The block building will include pumps inside and pipes will be built underground to reach the station.
During the hearing, Daniel Paul Murphy Sr., whose 14-year-old son was killed in an all-terrain vehicle accident on library property, told the zoning board that his son’s memorial is located where the building would be constructed.
Murphy asked how the library can sell the property when a civil case is ongoing. He said destroying the memorial would be like bulldozing over a grave.
In making the motion to approve the special exception, the zoning board did not include any language regarding the memorial, but board chairman Jim Burns asked the authority officials to work with Murphy regarding the memorial.
Voting in favor of the motion were Burns, Paul Bortz Sr. and Neil Brown. The motion states that the authority must follow all state and federal regulations.